Construction complete on Urgent Care Centre
Staff recruitment now underway, equipment installation to start soon
Residents of Regina and the surrounding area will soon be able to receive treatment for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries, as well as support for mental health, without taking a trip to the emergency department.
Construction on the new Urgent Care Centre (UCC), located at 1320 Albert St., is now complete. According to the provincial government, the 24-hour facility will provide services including injury care, treatment for minor ailments, onsite basic diagnostic imaging and laboratory services, and mental health and addictions services.
“What is happening here is (we're) trying to fill some gaps that we have in health care on two fronts, one is urgent care — that gap between the emergency room and your primary care physician or nurse practitioner that you might be seeing,” Premier Scott Moe said at the facility on Tuesday. “The second (front) really is starting to bring us towards better access to our mental health and addictions treatments.”
Health Minister Everett Hindley said operating the first UCC of its kind in Saskatchewan will be a learning curve for the province.
“We're anticipating upwards of 20,000 patient visits per year, is the initial projection,” Hindley said. “We think that will have a significant impact in helping to reduce some of the numbers and the wait times and just frankly the volumes ending up in our emergency departments here in the city of Regina and that we're experiencing also in Saskatoon.”
A release from the province said staff recruitment is currently underway, and the installation and testing of equipment will take place over the coming weeks, with a goal to open the facility in the summer.
Andrew Will, chief executive of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), said 125 full-time equivalent employees will staff the facility.
“I'm really excited to share that there's been really strong interest,” Will said, adding the initial priority has been to recruit nurses. “We certainly want to make sure we have sufficient staffing to open the facility. I will say we do have some ability to rotate staff from other locations to work in the UCC if required.”
Hockey Canada announced Tuesday that it has hired Jaime Boldt as its first governance adviser.
Katherine Henderson, president and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada, said in a release that Boldt will help ensure that Hockey Canada's governance model is “effective, sustainable and efficient.”
Boldt is an adjunct professor at the University of Regina's Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and joins Hockey Canada after five years as the executive director of the Globe Theatre in Saskatchewan's capital.
Boldt has also worked as a consultant with Canadian Women & Sport. She is also a member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council.
Hockey Canada has undergone a governance overhaul since allegations of sexual assault against players on its 2003 and 2018 world junior teams surfaced in 2022.
That included the resignation of the entire board and president and CEO Scott Smith in October 2022, and the hiring of Henderson as the organization's first female president and CEO in September 2023.